Soldiers cast votes despite power failure

ABS-CBN News

MANILA – Soldiers who registered for local absentee voting were able to cast their votes on Tuesday despite a power failure in Camp Aguinaldo, the general headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Quezon City.

Authorities pushed through with the manual voting after a brownout, which was caused by a busted transformer, according to AFP public affairs office deputy chief Maj. Emmanuel.

The brownout occurred around 1:45 p.m. Power was restored after an hour.

"The absentee voting in Camp Aguinaldo and other camps nationwide will not be affected by any power interruption since it’s manual and does not require sophisticated electronic equipment," said Garcia.

"In any event of power failure, the absentee voting will continue and will remain unaffected," he added.

The ballots were brought to Comelec where the votes will be counted later.

The military said 77 of the 133 registered voters in Camp Aguinaldo were able to vote during the absentee voting, which started at 9 a.m. and ended 4 p.m. at the AFP grandstand.

The voting was supervised by Commission on Elections (Comelec) representative Russel Teodoro and was assisted by about 10 soldiers.

Similar absentee voting activities were held in other military camps nationwide.